WACO, Texas (FOX 44) – Many children in Central Texas don’t know where their next meal is coming from without the help of school meals. Starting May 30th, Waco ISD is starting its summer feeding program to provide food to children over the summer.
The Shepherd’s Heart Pantry is also serving families who are food insecure with it’s 19 locations across Central Texas.
“There’s a lot of people that we see coming to our food distributions or mobile food distributions that may be from middle income families that they have three or four kids and they’ve got two car payments, a house payment and all the other bills that go with four kids. And they’re hurting. They’re hurting. So I know that the need is out there for the summer,” says executive director Robert Gager of Shepherd’s Heart Pantry.
Waco ISD’s summer feeding program provides free meals to all children ages 1 through 18. The program starts on Tuesday May 30th and runs until Wednesday August 9th. Participating sites include 14 Waco ISD schools, 7 community locations and 10 mobile food trucks.
The Shepherd’s Heart Pantry is partnering with the Central Texas Food Bank to serve even more children this summer than last year. With the food banks help, the pantry estimates serving up to 3,000 children per week.
Here are links to Waco ISD’s summer feeding program and the Shepherd’s Heart Pantry.